Hot Topics:

Ex-CU Buffs star rolls to Boulder Tennis Open title

Janssens wins women's Boulder Open title; Sabatka takes men's crown

By Alex Tostado

For the Camera

Posted:
07/27/2014 04:35:14 PM MDT

Updated:
07/28/2014 11:50:08 AM MDT

The Boulder Tennis Open concluded Sunday with two Colorado stars taking the titles.

Winde Janssens, 21, won the women's singles title. The recent graduate played her college tennis at the University of Colorado and was the Buffs' No. 1 player. In her four years at CU, the Belgian native notched 52 singles victories and 51 doubles wins. Her 103 wins are 21st in school history.

For the men's singles title, Hayden Sabatka, 19, defeated Milos Koprivica of Serbia. Sabatka, a former five-star recruit out of Insight School of Colorado, plays for the University of New Mexico.

During his high school career, Sabatka went 82-3 in singles matches.

Sabatka defeated Koprivica 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 to claim the title.

The teen beat his Serbian counterpart by settling down and playing his style. In the first set, the first four games were split before Sabatka won four straight games to take the set.

"I kind of got into my groove," Sabatka said. "The serve was on, my returns were good ... I got into a nice groove."

"My serve has grown bigger and bigger as I have grown older and stronger," Sabatka said. "Some days, I can hit my bomb-T (hardest serve) all the time; some days, I can't, so luckily it was a little more on today.

"Some days, (Koprivica) can hit huge serves ... I don't think he was serving as well as he could have."

Advertisement

Sabatka was frustrated in the match, especially during the third set.

"(As) the match goes on, (mentally) and physically, everything is starting to not work as well," Sabatka said. "It's getting frustrating when I miss easy balls, and then when I have points I can win and then I lose those points, or I'm serving for the match and I mishit it into the net. Those just add on to my level of frustration."

Janssens, meanwhile, won her match in straight sets 6-1, 6-4 over Kathleen Kousman.

"I think I played pretty consistent," Janssens said. "I had to take some power off of my first serve because it didn't go the way that I wanted ... and I was able to keep it consistent."

Even though she is now graduated, Janssens keeps in touch with two of her CU coaches.

"I am still in contact with (my coaches) and they know I'm playing and they ask me when I play. And sometimes they come watch me, so that feels good," Janssens said.

Janssens is planning on staying in Colorado for another year to coach with the Rocky Mountain Tennis Center in Boulder.

"After that, I don't know," Janssens said. "We will see what the future brings."

New coordinator pushes Buffs to work, play at level he expectsJim Leavitt has discovered this much about his new defense at Colorado: He has some talent with which to work, but his players need to put it in another gear. Full Story